Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Exit Slips

Exit slips, or exit tickets, are very common means of assessment, especially in the older grades. However, I believe that they can be used in all grades, even as young as kindergarten.

But first, what is an exit ticket?! An exit slip or ticket can be a small notecard or Post-It note that is used to take a quick assessment. Generally, it is an informal assessment, but I have started to take grades on a few of my exit slips in some subjects. Basically, it is meant to "take the temperature" of the class, if you will. You can quickly see who has "got it" and who does not.

I recently started using exit slips in my classroom and the students love them. I used library pockets and adhered them to the door frame. They each have their name on them. Then, when it is time to use an exit ticket, I will pass out a notecard. I try to keep the exit slip short, maybe 5 questions. For example, a recent one that I did was to assess common and proper nouns. I was pretty sure most of my students were getting it, but I wanted to check. So I had them number the notecard from 1-5. I told them that I would give them 5 words and they had to write C for common or P for proper on their notecard. That's it! So quick and easy, yet so informative. Once the students are done, they can place the notecard in their pocket and it's very easy for me to just grab them and take a look.

I have also seen various boards and displays where students have a Post-It note and they stick it on the square that has their name. Then, the teacher can also quickly see who has not finished yet. Either way, it is a great tool to use in the classroom.

Depending on the method of exit tickets that you choose to use in your classroom, I decided to create some exit slips. You can download them simply by clicking on the picture. They're FREE!